Something wicked
by DracoCorvus
Summary: Draco has grown up and finds himself living in a dark, dreary world, longing for his lost life. But when an old enemy comes to him as a runaway he finds his whole life turning upside down.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Okay, this is just a little project of mine. It has a bit of a different story line than most other fanfics, but I've grown quite attached to this premises. Just review and tell me if you like it or not, cause I'm debating on whether really going full steam with this story or not. Your feedback will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!**

Chapter One: Remembrance

Draco sat in his study, rubbing his forehead in frustration and pure fatigue. He hadn't slept well lately. Hell, he hadn't slept well in five years, and he didn't know how much longer he could last being like this. Already all of his finely tailored robes were hanging off of his drastically decreased body and he just hadn't had the energy or drive to buy new ones. He didn't sleep and he didn't eat and he was slowly wasting away- just like all of his hopes and dreams. In fact, the only thing, or things, that kept him going were…

"Daddy!" Draco's thoughts were interrupted by a bundle of soft golden hair and green silk that rampaged through his study, narrowly missing crashing into a crystal vase. Draco's tired face broke out into a warm smile as he caught his tiny daughter in his arms. He looked down at her smiling golden eyes and bright smile and felt a common sensation of love and misery.

"Active this morning aren't we, Danica?" Draco asked, one eyebrow raised and a slight smile touching his lips.

"What are we going to do today, daddy?" Danica asked, her large eyes shining in excitement.

"Well, you go wake your brother up and then we'll decide" Draco said, getting up and putting his little daughter down. She ran out if the room and Draco felt an empty tugging at his heart. Danica and Daniel, his little eight year old twins, were his two beacons of light. He loved the two and tried to be good father to them- but it wasn't as easy as it looked. He was a novelist and many times tended to ignore everything around him for long periods of time. He had hired a whole army of live in nannies, cooks, caretakers and anybody else he thought his children would need- but he knew that no matter how many people he hired, they couldn't take the place of parents. He had just finished his newest novel that morning and was planning on spending the day with his children, like proper fathers should.

But as hard as it was for Draco to be a good dad, it was even harder for him to be a good husband. He tried the hardest he could to maintain his composure, but the more he saw his wife the sadder and more regretful he felt. But she had been his angel and he knew he would never, ever let her go no matter what happened.

Slowly, cautiously, with the gait of a man who had suffered many hardships, Draco walked down the long hallway from his study to his wife's room. He had just bought this grand house in southern Italy. His last novel had done exceptionally well and he decided that the family needed a change of scenery. Their old London manor was too stuffy and filled with too many memories. And besides, Draco decided the warm Italian weather would do all of them quite well.

His bare feet moved lightly along the slightly cool marble as he made his way through the hallway, not paying attention to the sunny and bright weather that was peaking through the wall length windows that graced the artful hallway. He doubted that any amount of sun could warm the ice around him. He made his way to his wife's room just as a familiar redheaded man came out of it. Draco looked into the face of one of his childhood enemies and smiled sadly.

'How's she doing?" Draco asked. Dr. Ronal Weasley looked up at the gray shadow that the great Draco Malfoy had become and put on a matching sad smile.

'Just the same as the day before, and the day before that" Ron said. "By her expression I'd say she's happily sleeping" he added, just for the sake of Draco's sanity.

Draco nodded serenely and made his way past Ron to the door.

"Draco, stop acting like this. If you deprive yourself of sleep and food from any longer then you'll waste away to nothing. You have the twins to think of, they look up to you" Ron said, putting a hand on Draco's shoulder. "And I'm saying this not only as a doctor, but as a friend. I can't stand to see you do this to yourself." He added, his brown eyes sad.

'Don't worry about me, Ron. I'll be fine. Say hi to everybody for me" Draco said as he slipped into the room. Ron just shook his head and walked away, his retreating figure becoming smaller and smaller.

Draco entered the room and closed his eyes. When he opened them he saw that the room was dark. Ron had forgotten to draw the curtains.

"Look at how forgetful our little doctor can be. I pay him a fortune and he can't even remember to open your curtains" Draco said to his wife as he went over and opened them himself, letting light fill in the large, beautifully decorated room.

"I guess he doesn't know how much you love the sunlight, does he love?" Draco continued as he made his way to his wife's bed. "I remember how much you used to love taking trips outdoors just so that you could be in the sunlight. You used to drag us out camping all the time and then make me get up early with you to watch the sun rise. I never told you this before- but I always thought that the sunrise was magical" Draco said as he took his usual seat next to the bed. He tuned around the slight woman that was in it and ran a hand through the soft brown hair that fell across her pale, thin, but incredibly beautiful face.

'You've lost weight, love. Haven't you been eating well?" Draco asked her, lines of worry appearing across his forehead. It looked like Draco wasn't the only one with problems.

It had been five years now since his beloved had been in a coma, a coma caused by an injury she had sustained while saving him and their children, and the guilt still riddled him to this day. He had loved her, and she had loved him. She had given up her physical and mental actions so that he could live and now he wanted to give her life as well, or at least the best of lives she could have in her condition. He slowly got up from his chair and moved to the door next to her bed. He slowly opened it, revealing a small but cramped room. This was the place where he had stowed away everything that would remind him of her. In fact, the only things in the rest of the house that gave away the fact that he even had a wife was a large family picture that hung over the fireplace in the common room and the wedding band that Draco so lovingly wore. He stepped inside the room, the remembrance room as he called it, and shut the door behind him. He slowly eased himself into a fancy plush chair, her chair, and looked about him. Hanging on the walls were pictures of her, hundreds, each in a fancy frame of its own. There was the wedding picture, and the picture of her beaming while holding her newborn twins. Her beautiful face with her golden brown eyes and soft brown hair surrounded him and he closed his eyes, willing the tears not to spill out. But he didn't have to worry; the tears had already spilled long ago.

He reached into his robe pockets and pulled out a small golden locket hanging off a thin golden chain. He opened it and saw the familiar pictures inside. On one side it was a tiny picture of him and on the other a tiny picture of the twins at two years old. It had been her locket. 'This way I can keep my three most cherished people with me always' she had told him. Now seeing this locket made Draco even more miserable. He would never hear her talk again, never see her smile, never see her angry, or never have her try to make him smile again. Ron and all the other doctors had told him that there was slim chance that she would ever get out of her coma, but Draco refused to let her go- always holding on to the small hope that she would get up and everything would be right again.

"Draco, why do you look so sad?"

Draco stiffened as he felt a presence besides him. He opened his eyes and found his wife looking at him, her golden brown eyes sparkling the way they always had. He closed his eyes again. He had been seeing visions of her more often lately. It had happened ever since she had gone into a coma, but now if was happening with more frequency. He had gone to a doctor to take care of it, but even his medications didn't help him very much. All the doctors had told him the same thing- he longed to see his wife so badly that his mind was making him see her.

Draco opened his eyes and saw that she was still standing in front of him. He knew that she wasn't real; his real wife was lying in a coma in the bed next door, but she looked so real, and so alive that he let himself succumb to her once more.

"Hermione, love, you've come back to me" Draco said, his voice barely a whisper. The vision Hermione laughed slightly.

"Have I been gone?" she asked, her eyebrows raised. Draco shook his head morosely as the vision looked around the room.

'Really Draco, by looking around here I'd say you were a bit obsessed with me" she said, smiling her usual, heartwarming smile.

"I am" he said, without a moment's hesitation. Hermione just shook her head and touched his cheek, and Draco could swear that he actually felt her soft, featherlike touch.

"You look ill" she said, her voice laced with worry.

"Then come back and take care of me" Draco said softly, reaching to touch her hand, but all he felt was cold air. Hermione shook her head.

"I am here Draco, you know that" she said, but Draco just shook his head.

"We all need you, love. The children, me- come back" he said, his voice barely a whisper. Hermione smiled, but he could see her start to disappear.

"Don't leave me, love, don't leave me again!" Draco cried in a pained voice as the vision of his beloved wife started to disappear.

"I won't, my love" she said before she was completely gone. Draco clutched the air in front of him, looking like a little boy who was reaching to hold his favorite teddy bear. He needed her there; he needed her to root him, to make him sane again. He closed his eyes and sat by himself in complete miserable solitude for long moments before he got up and walked out of the room into Hermione's room again. He looked down at his wife, peaceful on her lush bed.

"I finished my book today. I dedicated it to you" he said achingly before he turned and walked out of the room. He couldn't stand to be in there for another second. He had thought losing his parents would hurt more than having his wife slip into a coma, but he was horribly wrong. Losing Hermione had been like losing himself. Even though she was technically still alive, it felt as though he would never see her again, and that hurt more than anything else.

Composing himself, Draco walked towards the kitchen to eat with his children when Andre, his perfectly dressed, perfectly proper butler stepped in front if him.

"Master Malfoy, you have a guest waiting for you. Someone by the name of Ginny Weasley" Andre said.

**A/N: Okay, so what do you think? Please review and tell me.**


	2. Beckett and Burning

**A/N: Okay, so I havn't updated this in forever because I've been so busy with my other story- but here's the next chapter for you!**

**Chapter 2: Beckett and Burning**

Ginny Weasley had never thought of herself as an unpractical woman. Sure she had made a few mistakes in her life, especially during the period of time when her name had been Ginny Potter. But those times were over now, and the lady saw herself as being a pillar of poise. Until today, that was.

By the time Draco came into the parlor where Ginny had been waiting, she had already paced the room countless times, her hands fluttering nervously at her side. Draco, who had seen Ginny in both her extreme highs as well as her extreme lows, could tell that something was off balance with the woman right away.

"Ginny" Draco said to the woman, nodding his head in a sign of greeting. As soon as Draco spoke, Ginny stopped pacing and turned around to face him. The woman had aged gracefully and now, at 36, she looked not a day older then 29.

"Hello Draco" she answered, her voice shaking only slightly. Draco motioned for the woman to have a seat, which she did rather gratefully. Draco sat across from her.

"What do I owe this pleasure to?" he asked. Draco had never really gotten along with Ginny well and he found it extremely unusual that she would visit him.

"Draco…I came here because of Beckett" Ginny said. Draco looked up at the woman furiously as the words came out of her mouth. The man's eyes clouded over with rage and his mouth set into a thin line.

"You will not mention that name in my house" he said rather icily.

"Listen, Draco, I know that this is bringing up old troubles…"

"That is exactly what it is doing- and I don't need any more troubles right now" he said, starting to get up. Ginny placed her hand on his arm to try to stop him.

"Please, listen to me" she said hopelessly.

"Why would I do that?" Draco asked. Ginny sighed.

"Because Beckett left school" she said. Draco snorted.

"Sounds like something she would do" he said. Ginny looked up at him with narrowed eyes.

"Draco, I know that you dislike Beckett, but I will have to ask you to stop insulting her in front of me. I am her mother after all" she said. Draco sighed.

"Okay. But what does your daughter's quitting school have anything to do with me" he asked.

"She told me that she wanted to move back home, get a job there" Ginny answered. Draco looked at her blankly.

"Again- what does that have to do with me?" he asked.

"Draco are you not aware that the charming little cottage right behind your house does not belong to you?" Ginny asked. Draco thought about that cottage. He had been using it as a garden shed.

"Really? Then who does it belong to?" he asked.

"It belongs to Harry and me. It was where Beckett grew up" Ginny said. Draco suddenly felt himself going weak.

"So are you trying to tell me that when Beckett says that she's moving back home, she means that she is moving back…"

'Here" Ginny finished, causing Draco to stand up suddenly.

"I will not have her here" he said, his tone hard.

"There is nothing you can do about it, Draco. The cottage technically belongs to her" Ginny answered, also getting up.

"Listen, Ginny. There is no way that I am going to live next to that…whore" he snapped, causing Ginny's natural motherly instincts to shine through.

"Draco Malfoy- you will not call my daughter such things. She is most certainly not a whore" Ginny said, her eyes flashing.

"Then how do you explain the incident three years ago" Draco growled. Ginny held herself up to her full height and looked the man straight in the eye.

"I am sick of you acting like that ordeal was entirely her fault. You were the older one, you should have known better" Ginny snarled. Draco just looked down at her, unable to say anything because he knew that it was true. And it was because of that fact that Draco hated Beckett and himself so much.

Ginny looked at Draco, knowing that she had won and feeling a hollow pride in her victory. Ginny wasn't proud of the actions that Draco and her daughter had taken three years ago- and, if truth be told, she would rather forget them forever. But now that Beckett wanted to move back, Ginny knew that she could do nothing to stop her. Her daughter was a stubborn, headstrong girl- where she got that from, even Ginny didn't know. She assumed that it was because the girl had been born at the wrong time to the wrong parents. Ginny had only been sixteen when she had the girl and she and Harry, who was only a year older, weren't ready to take care of her. Hell, they hadn't even been able to take care of each other.

"I came to warn you, Draco. Beckett should be arriving soon and I wanted you to know about it" Ginny said. Draco nodded at her, feeling the painful sting of losing the argument as well as the usual bout of depression that the memories of the old incident brought back.

"You know your way out" he said simply. Ginny nodded her head and walked out the door while Draco sunk back into his chair, bowing his head down. It had been three years since the incident and now the demon who had been plaguing his mind was about to return.

Draco could still remember the day that it had happened. The twins had only been five then and the doctor had told him only that morning that Hermione would be in a coma for the rest of her life. He was broken and battered and he wasn't thinking straight. At least, that was what his excuse was.

Beckett had been close to him then. She and Hermione had gotten along quite well and she looked after the twins like she was their second mother. Draco could still picture her perfectly, her long auburn tresses and her eyes, which were the most shocking color of green. She had been seventeen at the time of the incident, and her grief over Hermione's state as well as the natural uncertainty that came with her young age clouded her mind.

Draco needed comfort and so did she, so they found that in each other. Draco had never meant to cheat on his wife- but that day he did just that. Sure it could be argued that Hermione was in a catatonic state so he technically never had committed adultery- but he felt like he did. That day he had cheated on the most pure, kind woman he had ever met and he hated Beckett for it. He hated her for being there, for being so available, for grieving with him so much that he felt like he could find comfort with her. And he knew that the girl probably felt the same way. She was young- she had just slept with a man seventeen years her senior- and her good friend's husband at that.

Neither one of them had talked to the other since; and Draco cursed the girl's name; just as he was sure she cursed his. Now the dreaded fates were bringing them back together once more and Draco knew that he would go insane with guilt if she lived anywhere near him.

Draco got up and walked out of the parlor, hearing the small footsteps from upstairs. The kids were probably up to no good, as always, but right now- Draco couldn't bring himself up to go look. He walked slowly into his large, impressive living room- done up in an Ancient Roman style. It was beautiful- large mosaics, marble statues; but it wasn't…him. He missed the dark oak panels and stately leather that had graced his manor back in England. But that was another time and another life ago.

From outside the large picture windows that stood proudly at one end of the room Draco saw the bright sky begin to dull. There was a storm brewing; in more than one way, and Draco felt that nothing good would come out of this day.

Suddenly there was a knock on the main door and Draco called out to his butler that he would get it. He padded across the floors to the grand wooden doors, too grand in his opinion, and placed his hand upon the doorknob; biting back a cry of surprise as the cold metal stung his warm palm. He opened the door, letting in a gust of cold air- which was quite unusual seeing as how Italian summers were known for being sun drenched.

"Hell, my name is….Draco? What the hell are you doing here?"

Standing in his doorway was a tiny creature, no more than 5'2 and, in Draco's opinion (though it might have just been his overactive novelists mind thinking too deeply into things) looking like she had brought death with her. She was painfully thin to the point where she looked frail and sickly. Her hair was long and tangled, falling to her back in erratic auburn waves. Her clothes were shabby, her skin had a pale pallor to it, and her eyes, which were still the same shade of shockingly bright green, looked large and venerable in her thin face.

"I could be asking the same thing about you, Beckett" Draco responded coldly, uttering her name out loud for the first time in three years.

"You…you are supposed to be in England" she said after a good minute, her tones soft but hard at the same time. Draco still wondered how she did it.

"I moved" he said simply. The girl in front of him held her small chin high and looked at him with those huge eyes of hers.

"So did I. I will be living in that small cottage behind your house now" she said hotly. Draco frowned deeply.

"Fine then live there- but you better stay away from me and from the twins" he snapped back at her, hating the insolent way she was glaring at him.

"Like I would even want to talk to you more than I have to" she grumbled.

"Then why are you talking to me now?" he asked. She glared up at him.

"I was going to ask you to move all your crap out of my house" she said, referring to all of the garden equipment that Draco kept stored there.

"Do it yourself- it's your home now" he said, slamming the door in her face- not having any want in furthering the conversation. Not that he had wanted to begin it in the first place either. But now that was over, and he was glad. Well as glad as he could be having his worst enemy practically living in his back yard.

Draco heard Beckett yell out some string of profanity at him, but he just walked away- letting her scream to his unforgiving wooden doors. She was insane and he wanted nothing to do with her.

Yet, as the man walked down the hall into the kitchen he couldn't help but wonder why Beckett's appearance had changed so much. When he had last seen her three years ago, she had been beautiful and…healthy. Now, while she still retained some traces of her old self, she looked as though she was fading away. She was too thin and frail and it was obvious to see that she wasn't in good health. Not that it really mattered, he didn't care if she was a hair's breath away from death or not. He just didn't want her fainting into his pool.

Draco walked into the kitchen to see his two children sitting down, already started on their breakfast.

"How are we doing today, my loves?' Draco asked as he sat down. The maid immediately placed a plate of food in front of him; Draco had lost his appetite quite a while ago.

"You said once Daniel was awake we could decide where to go today" Danica said, looking up from her plate of eggs.

"Yes I did" Draco said, smiling at his children "where do you two want to go?" he asked.

"The beach!" both of them cried in unison. No surprise there, both of the children absolutely adored the beach; they always had- even though now the thought of waves and water brought back sick memories for Draco. That was where it had happened; amid the sand and the warmth of shore Hermione had dropped down- never to rise again.

"The weather is a bit cold today, maybe we should go somewhere that's indoors" Draco said, picking up his fork and prodding his food with it.

"How about the aquarium?" Daniel asked. Draco couldn't help but give the boy a wry smile. If it wasn't the beach then it was always something to do with the water for that boy.

"We just went to the aquarium last month!" Danica said, pouting. "How about we go to the library?"

"Libraries are boring!" Daniel cried out.

"Yeah, well so is looking at the same stupid sea animals all the time" Danica said back. Draco sighed slightly. Those two were always fighting.

"Okay, how about we go the aquarium first, go get some lunch and then head out to the library afterwards. And I have three tickets to the play tonight" Draco said to the twins. Both of them nodded happily at that plan and Draco smiled. Crisis adverted.

"Daddy, do you smell something bad?" Daniel asked, wrinkling his nose. Draco sniffed the air and stiffened. It smelled like smoke. Something was on fire.

Immediately Draco got up and rushed from the room, trying to locate the source of the fire. He ran out to the backyard to find Beckett, leaning against the side of her house, a huge fire in front of her.

"Bloody hell, woman, what are you trying to do?" Draco cried, running up to her and waving the fire away with his wand. He looked down to see what she had been burning. The charred remains of his garden equipment looked back at him.

"You told me to get rid of your things, so I was" the girl said to him simply, her eyes burning murder into him. Draco muttered something under his breath. The cold air whipping his platinum hair across his face.

"That fire could have burned my whole house down if it had spread!" he growled at her.

"And that would be a problem to me because…" Beckett said, looking up at him insolently. Draco turned to her violently.

"Listen, I don't give a care about my house or about my health- but my wife and my children are in there and if anything, anything, happens to them then you better be sure that I will kill whoever hurt them" he said, his tone low, each word coming out like a threat.

Draco saw something flicker in the girl's green eyes. It could have been the mention of Hermione or it could have been the mention of Danica and Daniel. Beckett had been close to the twins before.

"I'll remember that the next time I have the urge to go on a murdering spree" Beckett said to him sarcastically as she started to make her way to the door of her new house. Draco sighed in irritation.

"Listen to me- I am warning you only once- stay away from my family" Draco said to her.

"And you stay away from my house!" Beckett yelled back at him, grabbing her bags from in front of the door.

"Don't be insolent to me" Draco said to her loudly.

"I am capable of making my own decisions!" Beckett screamed back.

"That wasn't what you said three years ago" Draco reminded her. The girl turned back towards him, her large eyes containing pure loathing. Draco had never seen so much fury in a pair of eyes before, not even in his dad's, and it took him back for a moment.

"I hate you, Draco Malfoy and I always will" she hissed before hoisting her bags up and slamming her door shut. Draco just stood there, transfixed to the spot for a few moments, not knowing what to do next.

Beckett's beauty queen looks might have been changed over the years, but her fire hadn't. Whatever the hell illness she had hadn't erased any of her brashness, stubbornness, or boldness.

And Draco didn't know if that was a good or bad thing.


End file.
